In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber
b. 1948
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is an eminent British composer of some of the world’s best-known musicals. His notable works include Cats, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Phantom of the Opera. He was educated at Westminster School and the Royal Conservatory of Music. From an early age, he wrote incidental music for shows with his toy theatre; at Westminster, he wrote music for school revues. In the April of 1965, he met the lyricist Tim Rice with whom he wrote the unperformed musical The Likes of Us and some pop songs. Their first success came with the commission to write a choral work for Colet Court School; the resulting pop cantata, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, was gradually extended to a full-length show and has become a constant of both amateur and professional repertories. Lloyd Webber has consistently drawn on three main elements for his music: pastiche, the rock riff, and the lyric ballad. Such structural familiarity allied to an innate sense of the melodically memorable account for much of Lloyd Webber’s lasting popular appeal.
Suggested Choral Pieces:
For more information about Sir Lloyd Webber or his work, please visit https://andrewlloydwebber.com/